In the treatment of aneurisms in man or other living animals, it is accepted practice to utilize a clip implanted at the base of the aneurism to impede further blood flow into the aneurism and permit surgical repair thereof. Present state of the art aneurism clips are normally formed of stainless steel. In many surgical situations the stainless steel clip is installed in a position that is likely to be in the path of subsequent X-ray examination. For typical X-ray films, exposure times, focal distances, and intensities that are utilized in radiography of the human body, stainless steel is opaque to the transmission of X-rays. Thus, dependent upon the position of implanted stainless steel clips, some of the area under X-ray examination can be masked from view by the X-ray characteristic of stainless steel. There is a definite need in the art for X-ray transparent clips that are suitable for implanting in living animals.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved aneurism clip structure.
Another object of the present invention is the provision of an aneurism clip that is transparent to X-rays.
A further object of the present invention is a novel medical clip that is biologically inert and transparent to X-ray scans.
Another object of the present invention is a novel process for making an X-ray transparent medical clip.
According to the present invention, the foregoing and additional objects are attained by constructing a unitary clip structure from a composite material with the clip having two hourglass type cavities separated by an integral hinge area, one of the cavity walls terminating in spaced ends essentially diametrically opposed to the hinge area and the other of the cavity walls terminating in elongated ends directed away from the cavities and also essentially diametrically opposed to the position of the hinge area. The cavity wall having the spaced end members receives a silicone rubber pellet or disc of adequate circumference to exert a force through the hinge area and maintain the elongated ends extending from the other cavity wall in biased contact to thereby enable use of the assembly as a spring biased clip.